Captain Barrington, the son of a lord! How fine he must look in uniform, in that cavalry uniform, with the silver cuirass and the plumed helmet like the English soldiers in her father's books at home!
"Your husband is very big," she said to Asako.
"Yes, he is," said Asako; "much too big for Japan."
"Oh, I should like that," said the little Eurasian, "it must be nice."
There was a warmth, a sincerity in the tone which made Asako stare at her companion. But the childish face was innocent and smiling. The languid curve of the smile and the opalescence of the green eyes betrayed none of their secrets to Asako's inexperience.
Reggie sat down at the piano, and, still watching the two women, he began to play.
"This is the Yaé Sonata," he explained to Geoffrey.
It began with some bars from an old Scottish song:
"Had we never loved so sadly, Had we never loved so madly, Never loved and never parted, We had ne'er been broken-hearted."
Insensibly the pathetic melody faded away into the _staccato_ beat of a _geisha's_ song, with more rhythm than tune, which doubled and redoubled its pace, stumbling and leaping up again over strange syncopations.
"I can't describe your wife, now that I see her," he said. "I don't know any dignified old Japanese music, something like the _gavottes_ of Couperin only in a setting of Kyoto and gold screens; and then there must be a dash of something very English which she has acquired from you--'Home, Sweet Home' or 'Sally in our Alley.'"
"Never mind, old chap!" said Geoffrey; "play 'Father's home again!'"
Reggie shook himself; and then struck up the rolling chorus; but, as he interpreted it, his mood turned pensive again. The tone was hushed, the time slower. The vulgar tune expressed itself suddenly in deep melancholy, It brought back to the two young men more forcibly than the most inspired _concerto_, the memory of England, the sparkle of the theatres, the street din of London, and the warmth of good company--all that had seemed sweet to them in a time which was distant now.
Reggie ceased playing. The two girls were sitting together now on the big black cushion in front of the fire. They were looking at a portfolio of Japanese prints, Reggie's embryo collection.